Toigo talked -

I had the pleasure, and it was a pleasure, of meeting and listening to Jon Toigo at a Microsoft IT Executive summit a few days ago. How that man can talk! He took his presentation slot and lengthened it by 50 percent and he could still have said...

I had the pleasure, and it was a pleasure, of meeting and listening to Jon Toigo at a Microsoft IT Executive summit a few days ago. How that man can talk! He took his presentation slot and lengthened it by 50 percent and he could still have said more - and people would still have listened.

For us Brits it was quite an experience to be pontificated to so energetically and so boldly by a pony-tailed, suit-wearing American. It was like listening to an analyst-cum-rockstar. There was a lot of implicit and explicit criticism of storage suppliers known by three letter acronyms and of others too, whose names are made of six letters in their shortened form, also of analysts. My, he does not like analyst firms.

Jon criticised big vendors and their high prices for complicated kit, kit he said was likely to be similar boxes with Seagate disks inside 'em. There was enthusiasm for Zetera and he said he was testing the kit, or using it in his lab. It will be very interesting to see if the hype around Zetera is real.

It was courageous of Microsoft to fly him over and present, for as a very big vendor Microsoft could be a target for Jon Toigo's verbal sallies. But it was not. He is, I think, very good value for audiences: provocative; shrewd; knowledgeable; and outrageous. The average corporate clone presenter disappears into the background besides him.

I kind of have an image of him riding a Harley D motorcycle, big cowboy boots sticking out either side, pony tail flowing out behind the coal scuttle helmet, and one finger sticking up at all the vehicles on the road he dislikes.

If you get the chance to attend a Toigo pitch then go. It will be like little else you have ever heard from a storage industry spokesperson.